When water makes you smile
by InieDark
Summary: Rin was swimming and as he was done Nitori had began his usual praising. And seems that Rin had done something different this particular morning, as the boy's eyes were shining more brightly then before. And that had triggered too many events than he would have liked to experience in one day.


**[Maybe this isn't so noticeable, as this is my first fanfic, but Rin is my favorite from the Free! guys. So the 'Oi!'; 'Huh?' and all other little sounds he makes may be in a bit of an overflow here hehehe o.o; Don't judge me! It's adorable!]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Free! IwatobiSC, but if I did... *Q***

Rin didn't realize that he was smiling. His sharp toothed smile had crept onto his lips without warning. And that all just because he had looked into Nitori's eyes, which had been shining bright blue, as the silver haired boy came running at him. A familiar blue, which made Rin's chest squeeze slightly and yet his heart jumped from joy. Remaining him of the clear blue water, the sky and sunshine playing in the ripples, almost like… Like the sight that Haruka had shown him. As the name flashed in his mind, warmth flooded the red hair's cheeks. Ever since he had joined his old teammates and swam in that relay Rin seemed to react weird when Haruka's name came up, even if only in his own head. Granted, the freestyler had always affected him, but now it seemed like he couldn't breathe upon hearing his name, not to mention about staying in one room, or swimming together.

"Rin-senpai?" The silver haired boy looked up at his senior with slight worry in his eyes. "Are you okay?" Snapping out of his thoughts Rin looked surprised at the younger male before him.

"Wha-… Ehm… Yeah, I-I'm fine." Rin said and took the offered towel from the younger boy's hands. Turning his face away, not wanting to show this zoned-out expression of his to anyone Rin started to dry his hair. He silently cursed himself and the heat that still seemed to linger on his cheeks.

"Wow! I never would have thought I will see onii-chan like that again." Gou smiled. "Well, except around you guys. Rin didn't use to smile like that around others, right Haruka-senpai?"

"Hmm…" Was all the girl got from the black haired boy standing beside her.

The Iwatobi and Samezuka swim club's had a joined practice again, but only Haruka and Gou already stood by the pool. The girl didn't even manage to set her foot inside the pool area without being noticed by the Samezuka's captain and so she didn't even manage to go to the changing rooms and talk with the rest of the team. While Haruka was his usual self and had not even waited to go to the locker room and striped right at the poor as soon his eyes saw the clear chlorinated water. He had only stopped from jumping in the water because the sight of Rin smiling had been too perplexing.

Haruka hadn't thought that his friend could still be like that, like his old self. The thought of it made him happy and at the same time got him wonder what had caused the old Rin resurface. Because after they had finished the relay he had turned back into the Rin that came back from Australia only less threatening. While still pondering on that, though, as always, his face didn't show it, Haruka dived into the water, sliding through it as gracefully as ever.

When he emerged from the silent and comforting water Rin already was on his way to the locker room. The young silver haired boy trailing after him like a puppy.

"I'm done swimming for today, Ai. See you later at the dorm." Rin put one hand lightly on his kohai's head and turned him back to face the pool. Although, stopped in his track, the boy still looked after his senpai till the red head disappeared behind a door, before turning his attention back to the pool and getting ready to do his exercises.

**X~x~x~x~x Later that day x~x~x~x~X**

After the practice was finished the whole Iwatobi swim team was heading home, chatting enthusiastically about the finished swimming exercise. Rei going on about his beautiful form, Nagisa laughing and dropping some comments that seem to fluster the glasses wearing boy, and Makoto trying to keep the group somewhat organized. Haruka as usual didn't join in the chattering going around him and so they walked on till Nagisa and Rei had to split off, while Makoto walked Haru till his house. Making sure the black haired boy was safe back in his own home he too left.

Walking through the empty rooms Haruka somehow felt that it was more quiet here than other days. Like the silence was pushing itself on him, suffocating him.

"I will eat something…" Haru said to himself trying to write the feeling down on empty stomach and nothing more. Cocking and slowly chewing on the mackerel Haruka looked around the empty room again and the creeping feeling from before didn't want to let go. Sighing he put the dishes in the sink and went out. "I need to swim." And where else one would go in a sunny early summer afternoon for a swim, when not the ocean?

Haruka slowly made his way down the stone stairs, passing houses and shops. His feet seemed to become lighter with every step he came closer to the wide, blue water. The thought to run for it even entered his thoughts and he felt almost blissful. Though cutting a corner he bumped into someone.

"I'm so sorry!" A quick sentence left the silver haired boy who looked at him with an apologetic look in his blue eyes. "Eh… Nanase-san." The boy's eyes widened as he recognized Haruka and turned around to look behind him with a worried expression.

"Ai, is this all the captain wanted to…" Rin's voice broke off as he met eye to eye with the brilliant blue ones of Haruka. "Haru?" He said bearably audible. A sudden painfully pleasant feeling occupied his chest, making it hard for him to breathe. He averted his eyes and clicked his tongue in displeasure of how he himself reacted.

"So is this all?" Rin looked at Nitori with an unclear annoyance showing in his purple eyes. The boy practically jumped at the question.

"Emm… ehh.. Y-yes, Rin-senpai."

"Then let's go."

"You have been slacking off lately." Came a non challenged voice. Rin felt irritation build up in him, and somehow it was strangely easier for him to be around and deal with Haru when he was angry, go figure.

"What the hell did you say?!"

"I haven't seen you swim properly. Do you even train anymore?"

"I swim when your sorry asses are still in bed. It's not my problem that you arrive only to see me after I finish my training." Rin grinded his teeth in anger, as if that wasn't Haru's fault he actually had to reschedule his own training so early. How could he think of swimming with the guy, when he couldn't even say his name without breaking out into a weird joy that suffocated him slowly?

"Senpai really does practice hard, Nanase-san. I have been there every morning, so I know. There is no way Rin-senpai would slack off, because he is an excellent swimmer." Nitori cut in.

Rin felt heat come to his cheeks. That little guy could be so embarrassing sometimes, with his devotion towards him. And why, in heavens' name, did he try to defend him in front of Haruka of all people!? Nitori looked from Haruka to Rin and back for a moment till it hit him that he had overstepped his boundaries and talked out of place. Now his cheeks flushed red as well.

"Anyway, we should be going back, or the captain will yell at us. Let's go!" Flustered he rambled out his sentence in one breath take and pushed Rin in the direction of their dorm. The red hair didn't expect the contact, nor the push from his kohai and that throw him off balance.

"Hey! Watch it!" With that Rin fell backwards right at a streetlamp's post.

***CRASH***

"Ow! Sh*t!" Rin sat up, putting a hand to the back of his head and rubbed it gently. He silently wished that there wouldn't be a bump later that would be too uncool.

"Rin-senpai! Are you okay?" Nitori grabbed the sleeve of Rin's jacket, crouching down beside him, and looked up at the older boy. "Maybe you shouldn't move? I could get an icepack from the store for you." Nitori went on, as Rin didn't give him any response, sitting on the ground, eyes closed and hands on his head.

Haruka stood emotionlessly watching the scene enfold before him. That is, till Nitori lifted his hand with the intention to brush Rin's hair out of his face and getting a better look at the shark toothed guy's face. Haruka clenched his fists while an unexplainable anger bubbled up in him.

"Don't touch him!"

The boy's hand froze in midair. Rin opened his eyes and looked from shock frozen Nitori to an angry Haruka, feeling like he had missed out on an important part in the story and wondered if the hit wasn't actually harder than he thought.

"Ai? What's wrong?" He asked the boy, as he was frozen while leaning into his face, hand still raised.

"Come with me." Haruka grabbed Rin's wrist and practically speed walked away, pulling the confused red head with him and going straight for the ocean. Leaving Nitori and the things they bought on the side of the street.

"Oi! Wai- Haru!"

**X~x~x At the ocean x~x~X**

As soon, as the cool, salty breeze hit his face Haruka stripped out from his clothes, leaving them where ever they fell. He had let go of Rin's wrist and without a word dived into the clear cool water.

"Tsk. I shouldn't be surprised, but seriously…" Rin combed his hair back with his fingers. "The hell, Haru?!" He shouted after the black haired boy, although he doubted he had heard him. From the looks of it, the freestyler was already under water and in blissful silence. Sighing heavy Rin picked up Haru's clothes and put them in one pile. He wasn't going to neatly fold them or anything, but he couldn't let them lie around like this either. It was a public beach after all.

Putting his hands in his jacket's pockets, Rin looked at the wide ocean, making ripples in the sunny afternoon. He felt like he could smack himself in the head, as the words 'kind of romantic' came into his mind.

As Rin stood watching, letting the gentle sea breeze mess with his hair and blowing sand on his clothes a slight feeling of unease started to pull on the back of his head. Like an annoying beeping that tried to tell him something in this scenario wasn't right. Rin looked over the water and wondered what exactly could be the 'wrong' in this scene, when a wave of cold sweat hit him like a train. Haru! He hadn't come up for air once.

"Don't you mess with me, you f*cking water freak…" Rin already was striped to his swimsuit at the time he spoke the words out loud, going in the water and diving under. _If he isn't drowning I will drown him myself!_ The salty water stung in his eyes and it was hard to see anything under the water's surface.

"Haru! Where are you? …Haruka!" Rin muttered curses under his breath while looking over the peaceful ocean's surface. The salt, that entered his eyes, called for tears to gather in his eyes making his vision blurry. _[At last that's what he wanted to think :3]_ He grinded his teeth in frustration and taking a deep breath dived under again, this time closing his eyes. Rin let his body just drift gently in the water as he slowly got adjusted to the surroundings. He could feel him. It was like they were swimming beside each other, in the swimming pool, in the neighboring lines. The unmistakable presence.

By opened his eyes Rin could see Haru flout about twelve feet away from him, hands and legs starched and completely relaxed, slowly sinking into the darkness. The last of his breath leaving him into small bubbles. The peacefulness of this sight made Rin mad. Closing the distance in couple of strong strokes Rin reached for Haru's arm, grabbing him by his elbow and pulling him up.

But the boy resisted. Opening his eyes he looked at Rin as, if to tell him to mind his own business and let him drift, while his lungs clearly ached for air. If he hadn't been underwater Rin would have screamed and punched the daylight out of Haruka. _Don't you give me that sh*t!_ Rin cursed in his head. Pissed off, he grabbed the blue eyed boy under his arms, hugging him closely to his own body, forcing his lips on Haru's, giving him half of his own breath and with strong kicks made them both resurface.

As both their heads broke through the water's surface and air hit their starving lungs both of them broke into a coughing fit, as their bodies tried to clear the airways from salt water. Rin hit the water in anger, splashing it at Haru's face.

"Are you crazy?!" Still coughing up water Rin shouted. "You drag me here and go off in the ocean just to pull this suicidal stunt! I know you like water, but there are limits, you know! What the hell were yo-" Rin's anger outburst was stopped by Haru's lips lightly pressing against his and he felt like all oxygen was gone from the world. Like he was the one at the bottom of the ocean now, his mind going completely blank. His blood was rushing in his ears competing with the ocean around them. Haruka slowly withdraw his lips and opened his eyes when their faces moved apart.

"I was just thinking. Doing that in water helps a lot, you know. It's quiet." He answered Rin's question with a slightly rough voice from the salty sea water, looking at the other boy with earnest, slightly absent eyes. The brilliant blue color of Haru's eyes made Rin dizzy. It was too beautiful to look at while his mind was blank as a sheet of paper, completely forgetting his anger.

"W-Why? Why did you…?" Rin asked with his eyes down, looking at the water that surrounded Haruka. His voice was slightly husky. A blush was plastered over his face.

"The kiss? You did that first." Came a nonchallenged answer from the dark haired boy. Rin swallowed hard.

"Well… Yeah, but… That was to give you air." Rin mentally cursed at himself. _What the hell was wrong with him?! He acted shy and weak in front of Haru._ The red haired boy squeezed his eyes shut, taking a deep breath and then looked at the boy before him. The slightly angry look had returned to his purple eyes. "Kissing someone isn't a small mater, you should know that. There are only three ways that are allowed. First is when saving someone, what I did, it's part of CPR. Second, kissing a friend while being in mutual agreement about it, like when you say goodbye, or hello in other countries. And third is with a… a lover."

Haruka listened to the red haired boy in silence, while Rin couldn't quite tell, if he actually heard him or just stared at his mouth while it moved. He was probably zoning him out, while enjoying drifting in the cool ocean.

"Anyway…" Rin continued. He just had to talk, or the closeness would make him go mad. The breathtaking pain in his chest had resurfaced when he had acknowledged the fact they were alone here, in water and just shared lip contact. "I will let this slide once, but don't go off repeating everything just like that. What the hell is Makoto teaching you?" The last part Rin mumbled under his breath as he turned to swim to the shore.

"Wait…" Haruka's hand shot out and wrapped itself around Rin's neck, preventing him from leaving and choking him in the process.

"Oi! Let go!" Rin squirmed under the unpleasant grip on him and cough couple of times when he finally got free. "The hell was that for?!" He threw an angry glare at the other boy.

"Why did you mention Makoto?"

"Tsk." Rin closed his eyes in annoyance and then looked back at Haru again. "Coz he acts like he is your mom, or something. He is the only one you are listening to anyways, right? So he should teach you those things."

"About kissing?"

Rin froze in the water, his eyes widened. He didn't expect that question leave the blue eyed boys mouth. Averting his eyes and uncomfortably clearing his throat Rin mumbled under his breath. "Yeah. Whatever." A blush of annoyance, which he couldn't quite explain, slowly made its way to his face.

"I don't want to."

Rin looked back at Haru who met his eyes with a somehow sad gaze.

"Huh?"

"I don't want Makoto to teach me. I want you to do it."

"Come again?!" Rin blinked couple of times and looked at Haruka with his eyebrows furrowed. He felt like the black haired boy just spoke a language out of space and seriously, he started to hate not being able to follow the black haired boy's way of thinking. On which Haruka sighed deeply and closed the distance between them with a swift movement, that made him look like he actually was a creature from the sea. _Typical Haru…_ Rin thought not noticing at first that they actually were face to face, until it was too late.

Haruka bent his head to one side, as to not bump their noses together and there it was again… his lips on Rin's, stealing all of the air in his lounges. The second time, though as surprising as it was, left him in a weaker daze than before, which allowed Rin to actually grasp a thought. Grabbing Haru's shoulders and pushed him back, breaking the kiss, only to put his own forehead to the blue eyed boys. Blushing and slightly panting Rin looked almost angry back into Haru's eyes.

"So? Did you listen to what I said before?" Rin almost growled trough his sharp teeth while his hands slowly trapped the other guy between his strong hands, in an almost choking embrace. Haruka met the glare of purple eyes with his calm expressionless look, but the predatory feeling that oozed out from Rin made the boy feel a shudder run down his spine. "We can cross out first option, coz none of us is drowning right now. For the second one, we are Japanese and I don't recall agreeing on anything, so what does this leaves us?" As Rin spoke his sharp teeth smile slowly pulled his lips in a grin that lost the angry look, but took on one that Haru could only describe as teasing.

"You know what it means, judging from what you just did, Haru?" Rin put his lips to one of Haru's ears and practically purred the question. On which the blue eyed boy nodded faintly.

"We are lovers."

Rin felt his heart skip a beat and right after that pick up a maddening rhythm, almost breaking his ribcage. Not in million years did he think to hear that from Haru. By his own free will. While being completely sane. He felt like laughing and shouting, and squeezing the living daylight out from the other guy.

"Don't be so cocky, or a shark might eat you." He grazed his teeth over Haru's earlobe before moving his head to face the blue eyes boy again, leaning in for a kiss, which was stopped by a moist hand, which tasted like salt water. _What the..?! He can kiss me as he pleases while I can't?_ Rin unconsciously grinded his teeth while giving Haru a 'What is it?' look.

"Your roommate…"

"What is with him?"

"You… love him?" Haru had turned his head to one side while speaking, as usual when he tried to hide his expressions, that sometimes surfaced, and this time it was a soft pink blush coloring his cheeks. Rin felt his mouth fall open. _I seriously don't get what's going on in his head!_

"Where the hell did that come from?" He seriously was at a loss of words.

"You…." Haru's voice died off in an incomprehensible murmur. Rin felt his eyebrows twitch and pull together.

"What?"

"You…." He repeated the murmuring.

"What? What did I do? Spit it out!"

"You smiled at him."

"Huh?!"

"Like you would smile at us… Like you did before, when we were young."

Rin almost shouted 'Are you serious?!', but the words got trapped in his throat when he saw Haru's eyes. They where lightly turned to him, so the boy could look at his red headed companion, and gave off a feeling of pain and … betrayal? Rin clenched his fists, while still hugging Haru to him. Letting out a long sigh he mentally prepped himself up. _Breathe!_ He ordered himself. _Don't lose your nerve now. He is showing emotions, that's a good thing, right?_ He sighed again. _What the hell he means I smiled? The f*ck?!_

"When? When did I do that?" Rin asked, his voice slightly betraying that he was pissed off over the stupidity of this conversation.

"This morning at the practice. Me and Kou saw you two."

Rin let his head drop, resting it on Haruka's shoulder. _Great! Does that mean Gou thinks I love Ai too? Coz I smiled?_ He felt tired. Like his energy was slowly leaking out from his body and that all just because Haru was being jealous… Wait… He was…? Of him?

Haruka felt Rin's body start to shake, first lightly and then almost convulsively. The emotionless boy looked down at his face, only to see a sharp, white toothed smile plastered on Rin's face. And it grew bigger, until Rin was laughing out loud, tears in his eyes. It almost was hysterical.

"What's so funny?" This time Haruka was the one with annoyance in his voice, although seeing Rin laugh stirred a painfully pleasant feeling in him. Rin looked at him, still smiling and trying not to burst out into another laughing fit.

"Everything!" The red haired boy chuckled. "Like you and myself… but most of all, this conversation."

Haruka's eyebrows pulled into a frown and a silent 'hmm' left his throat.

"Let me tell you something good." Rin pulled Haruka's head close, so his lips were at his ear. Haruka's hands went up to the other guys chest, in an attempt to keep him at a distance, but that was useless, as Rin tightened his grip around the boy and didn't seem to mind the crushing feeling to his own chest.

"I was thinking of you." He whispered.

"What?"

"That time. This morning at the practice I looked at Aiichiro's eyes and I saw it…" Rin tightened his embrace. "I remembered the sight you showed me and then… I… I thought of you." Haru could feel the heart beat against his hand pick up into a maddening speed.

"Damn it! I was so dazed by my own thoughts I didn't even notice I was smiling like an idiot…"

"Does it mean you love me?" Haruka asked and Rin's body went completely stiff. He loosened the embrace and looked back at the blue eyed boy with wide eyes. Then, as if the question he just heard finally hit him, Rin looked away pressing one of his hands to his lips mumbling under his breath, while his cheeks and ears turned into a bright red color. Haru looked at him in surprise, questioning his own eyes.

Rin slowly rolled his eyes to look at Haruka, who flouted there, next to him. With his expressionless face slightly blushed and brilliant blue eyes looking at Rin as if they waited for a miracle to happen. Rin felt his eyebrows twitch.

"Shut up!" He shouted, although Haru hadn't said a word, just blinked. Rin clicked his tongue and grabbed Haru at the back of his head, making him lean forward till their lips melded into each other. The kiss seemed passionate, almost greedy, when Rin suddenly pulled away.

"Open your mouth."

"What?" Haru looked at him perplexed.

"You said you want me to teach you, right? Then do it."

Haru did as Rin had asked and their mouths met again, this time in a deep kiss. And Haruka thought to himself, if someone asked him to describe it, he did say it was as deep as the ocean that gently surrounding them.

**[God, I suck at endings XD] P.S. I think Nitori is really annoying o.o just saying…**

**Please R & R my first try on this :)**


End file.
